by Mike Gray

We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh, we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile. — Hilaire Belloc

Satire of the Juvenalian type combines anger and humor in an often unpleasant concoction. The trouble is that everything isn’t always funny, which might explain why Herb London thinks satire has its limits:

When every condition is a joke, the nation is in trouble. Americans need relief from quotidian tension; they also need serious reflection on the present state of affairs.

Making special reference to the Jon Stewart-Stephen Colbert “Rally to Restore Sanity,” he observes:

Yes, we laugh at the comic inversions and excoriating certitudes; we admire the comedians. But there is a backdrop for this rally of satirists; it is comprised of historical forces that often do not take kindly to the destruction of normative judgment. It is especially harsh with the display of hubris which the gods never forgive.

In writing about The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber noted that in the final stage of this evolution, it might truly be said: “Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.” Is this where we are at the moment – laughing at the nullity and assuming we have reached a higher level of civilization?

Herb London’s article (“When Satirists Dominate the Culture”) is here.

The writings of Rome’s finest, down-and-dirtiest satirist are available here.